At the recent launch of Artefacts of Jamaica, facilitated by the Caribbean Culture Fund, cultural practitioners from Jamaica, the US Virgin Islands, Saba, and Dominica reflected on a challenge facing communities across the Caribbean: how to preserve cultural heritage as historic sites, stories, and traditions come under increasing pressure from development, climate change, and neglect.
Artefacts of Jamaica is the brainchild of Jamaican visual artist Idris Veitch. The digital heritage preservation project creates an open-access archive that expands public access to Jamaica’s architectural history while documenting buildings that face ongoing deterioration and neglect.
Veitch noted that some of the sites he documented have already been lost or continue to deteriorate. He recalled learning that Waterloo House had been flattened by Hurricane Melissa in late 2026.
One of the project’s goals, he explained, is to make heritage more accessible and encourage public engagement with sites that are often overlooked. “People walk past them as if they’re in the background,” he said. “When there’s so much history behind them.”
The discussion highlighted that these challenges are not unique to any one island. US Virgin Islands photographer and cultural archivist Stephanie Chalana Brown shared insights from Claiming Spaces: The African Story of the Sugar Mill, a project that uses photography, oral histories, genealogy, and community engagement to explore the African diaspora histories connected to St. Croix’s sugar mills and challenge colonial narratives that have long shaped their interpretation.
“The tangible and material evidence provides a framework for us to say that we built this,” Brown said. “Because they (our ancestors) were able to endure, we still exist.”
Sharifa Balfour discussed The Resilient Houses Project, which examines the shared histories and climate resilience of traditional wooden architecture in Saba and Dominica. Through research exchanges, exhibitions, restoration work, and digital storytelling, the project explores how traditional building knowledge can inform contemporary conversations about resilience, identity, and sustainable development.
“It’s not just safeguarding our history and culture,” Balfour said. “It’s really saving our identity.”
Despite their different approaches, all three projects connect communities with the histories, places, and knowledge systems that have shaped Caribbean societies. The discussion also underscored the challenges of sustaining this work, as long-term research, documentation, community collaboration, and public programming often struggle to attract adequate support.
What emerged clearly from the conversation was that artists are doing far more than documenting the past. They are helping communities understand their heritage, claim ownership of their histories, and carry them forward. As Veitch observed, artists often serve as translators, making culture and history more accessible and ensuring that the stories, places, and traditions that shape Caribbean identity remain visible for future generations.
Cultural preservation will continue to be a core priority in CCF’s work. For more information on other CCF-funded projects in this area, visit our website at caribbeanculturefund.org.
About the Caribbean Culture Fund
The Caribbean Culture Fund (CCF) is a regional fund dedicated to connecting Caribbean creatives and cultural organizations to funding. Through grants and capacity-building opportunities, CCF supports projects that promote collaboration, preserve heritage, and expand access to arts and culture. Since its launch, CCF has supported more than 80 projects across the region, investing over US$1.2 million in initiatives that demonstrate the value of arts and culture in Caribbean development.
For more information, visit caribbeanculturefund.org.
